Scotland ahoy! (heavy on the pics tho...)

I've just got back from my break in Scotland with my sister - we went on a Lochs and Glens coach trip and stayed at the Inversnaid Hotel on the bonnie bonnie banks of Loch Lomond - and very bonnie they are too! The main reason for the trip was to visit the Edinburgh Royal Military Tattoo which we have both wanted to do for ages - and boy it is so worth it if you get the chance to go... I love the sound of the pipes and drums, and watching the precision marching and inter-weaving and entwining they do - absolutely stunning.

As well as Scottish and English bands they have bands from abroad - this year there were bands from North Korea, Mongolia, Mexico and New Zealand - the latter keeping everybody well entertained with their singing, dancing "Gangnam Style" (yes - honestly!) and finishing off with the Haka...

The Imps junior motorcycle display team were also there, whizzing around the auditorium and doing fast crossover passes - whilst riding their bikes standing facing backwards - heart in mouth time but their timing was perfect. So too was the marching from the girls from New Zealand - they also did a routine which included perfect crossovers whilst marching backwards!

As well as the tattoo, we visited Stirling and the Wallace Monument, the Glengoyne Distillery and Callendar, as well as driving through some stunning scenery over The Dukes Pass. We also had a short cruise on Loch Lomond itself which was very informative, all about Rob Roy and the Duke of Montrose. All in all a very busy and packed 3 days, with a day each side for the journey up.

It was a nice break and very good value for money, its now the third time I've been away with Lochs and Glens and certainly intend going again - but next time I'll be a devil and go for longer - 3 days just isn't long enough to get over the 12-hour or more journey on the coach up there (especially when the selfish cow in the seat in front of you fully reclines her seat into my knees without warning and gives me zero legroom for the whole holiday grrr)

So - pictures...

To get you in the mood, here's the piper at Gretna Green



Inversnaid Hotel

 



 

The Arklet Falls - right next to the hotel

 

 



Reflections of me and my sister in the waterfall!

 



The Scot Monument, Edinburgh

 

Greyfriars Bobby and his pub



 

Massed bands at the Edinburgh Royal Military Tattoo

 

Me and my sister at the Wallace Monument, Stirling

 

 

The Glengoyne Distillery

 

Reflections on one of the many lochs we passed

 

Lily pads on Loch Achray

 

The Haggis Farm on Loch Lomond

 

Oh ok, so the last picture isn't really a haggis farm - but that's how the tour guides describe it... it's actually the hydro-electric power station feeding from Loch Sloy way up at the top of the mountain - but according to the tour guide it's the haggis factory... Haggis's - or more properly Haggi - are a wild 3-legged creature that roams the mountainsides of Scotland, feeding on the heather, and they are chased and caught and sent to the building at the top of the pipes which is the slaughter-house... they are then prepared and rolled down the pipes (which gives the haggis the traditional round shape) and then arrive at the bottom building which is the packing station... where they are packed and sent to Tesco's...

 

Believe that and you'll believe anything... :-)

Catching up again...

Yeah I know - where does the time go... I'm sure it was still February just yesterday... well the weather seemed very much like February - wind and rain - just ready for today being Bank Holiday Monday here in the UK...

Right - where do I start? Having now sold my original Cricut Personal because I now have the all-singing-all-dancing Cricut Mini, I'm finding that it is not quite as wonderful as I first thought. Sure, using Cricut Craft Room to design everything I want to cut exactly how I want it is great - BUT you have to be online to do so - so I can't take it to a crop 'cos my laptop doesn't have a roaming internet connection. And whilst that isn't so much of a problem, it is a little frustrating... having said that I'm still having fun cutting things on it!

One of the first things I made was a cute little basket  - don't ask me which cartridge its from, George and Basic Shapes I think - but it looked so cute that I decided to play and managed to centre a heart shape onto one of the large panels to cut out...

I'd used a double-sided cardstock with a darker shade on the reverse taken from the Cricut cardstock pads that are ready cut 6x12 - I know my Mini mat can take wider but for playing around I thought the pad would be perfect.

It looked great when assembled and the cut-out heart glued into place onto the other large panel... Yeah I know, twee... but it's a start in working out how to use CCR...

Then I got cocky and decided that a 'word book' was next on the agenda... having been to Scotland twice last year I have loads of pics so decided that the word would be 'Scotland' and that I'd print out lots of the photos quite small and stick 'em in... that was before my wireless printer decided to disconnect itself from my home network - AGAIN - so I can neither print nor scan... I'll get round to sorting it eventually!

So after a lot of trial and error I finally came up with the letters for the word 'Scotland' - all nicely welded onto rectangles to give the right spacing between the letter pages, base pages cut from either white or grey cardstock, then just the letters cut from sheets of tartan paper I'd bought in a craft shop in Oban in July (ye gods - do I get a prize for actually using something I've bought within a year of its purchase???)

As you can see its over 12" long when finished - I actually cheated and glued the cut letter-strips onto strips of acetate having made sure I'd added on about half an inch to allow for binding. That didn't figure in my initial workings, but I think I've gotten away with it - especially as I can maintain that I'd planned on using a strip of black'n'white spotted Washi Tape on the bound edges!

The backs of each page are covered in some rather fetching tartan wrapping paper that I'd also bought on holiday, it was actually the reverse of an aerial photo of Inverrary which is why in the picture above you might be able to see bits of trees and grass in the centres of the letters... I'd thought ahead and bought 2 sheets of the same, thinking I could certainly make use of both sides lol...

Ever the crafter - even on holiday...